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I have a semi-long scene where three characters are in a car, one is driving and they are all talking. I'm not sure what to do with the BG and Sprite art for this... Use side sprites and a black/empty BG? Use a car interior BG, and we can just pretend they're in the car but not in seats > < ? Use a car driving on a street BG with side sprites????

any thoughts/input/so on?

Normally I would just have the screen be blank and let the dialog run, but since the scene lasts for longer than a few lines that seems bad since it's a Visual novel and all...

Anyone dealt with something like this before?

Since it is a long-scene, and I'm assuming, important, I would treat it like you would any other scene in your VN and have a car interior background.

Now ME, I would create custom sprites for this scene, with them sitting in the car. But I'm an artist, so this wouldn't cost me anything but time. I don't think most players would fault you if you had the normal sprites appear over the car interior background.

You may be able to kill two birds with one stone, however, if you just commissioned a CG with the 3 characters sitting in a car interior and ran the dialogue over that.

I think in this situation, it'd be best to have an event CG of them sitting in the car. You could have a few variants as well with different expressions. Only if this is possible, as I know making CGs or getting them drawn can be a bit of a hassle.

I am def not an artist, lol and they would go through a lot of expressions, so yeah I'll try the car interior BG and see how that looks. Maybe with Side sprites so it isn't too obnoxious.

Scribbles wrote:I am def not an artist, lol and they would go through a lot of expressions, so yeah I'll try the car interior BG and see how that looks. Maybe with Side sprites so it isn't too obnoxious.

Ah I think side sprites is a pretty good work-around~

I'd personally go with an interior view and a CG if possible (otherwise layer the sprites amongst car seats and scale them)

An alternative that may work depending on the rest of your game, would be a side view of the car and use sprites similar to those found in the Tales of series. But it may look out of place too.

Here's an example of somebody mimicing the style in a fan game:
https://youtu.be/WAumepLagqE

Imperf3kt's idea is pretty cute! But they're right, if you're gonna do something like that it'd be better to do it consistently.

I'd personally just put sprites in front of an indoor car background. If you feel like it's not interesting enough, the scenery car window in the back could probably change over time. Of course, that's all depending on the sources you can get.

The main thing that would look weird in this situation would be if you could clearly see empty seats in the car.

You can honestly get away with whatever and people would understand, but the one that makes the most sense to me is a CG of the car where you can't really see who's in it, either it's from behind or too close up or you do some fancy footwork with some lens flare. I think showing the interior might be weird. As long as you present the setting of "car" without showing clearly empty seats, side images of the characters would probably work.

That's the best I can come up with.

I would recommend either:

1) a CG with them in the car. Changing expressions in a CG shouldn't be too difficult. If the characters change poses dramatically, it might be a bit troublesome, but if they're sitting, they probably won't.

2) Put a background of the car zooming by on the street and use sprites wearing seatbelts. It might not work if you have thigh-shots for your sprites, but if your sprites are waist length, this can work. Instead of sprites, you can also do cut-ins of the character sitting and talking, but that would probably work as a CG. Cut-in CGs just make it so you don't need as much detail on the background art, I think.

I've seen a few games where the BG is just the inside of the car and the character sprites are normal, but that's a bit of a suspension of disbelief. If the car is a limo or something fancy and big, it might work, but... eh, in general, it might feel off.

I think I figured out a way to do a layered BG with the sprites... it's just affording the BG art I gotta deal with now lol >< if the "dash" in the front layer, two sprites sitting up front, seats, third sprite sitting in the middle, then backseats/car rear - could work well. Might not be *perfect* but I think I could pull it off... maybe....

I found some examples of how I and other artists have gotten around this situation.

In The Journey of Ignorance, I drew sprites specifically for the car scene (seatbelts, sitting, with different face expressions) and a background that fit with the sprite's perspective and placement: Link to image

The Shadows That Run Alongside Our Car took a similar approach: Link to image

Lovely Little Thieves did a panoramic CG that reveals each of the characters as the scene progresses: Link 1 & Link 2

Katy133 wrote:I found some examples of how I and other artists have gotten around this situation.

In The Journey of Ignorance, I drew sprites specifically for the car scene (seatbelts, sitting, with different face expressions) and a background that fit with the sprite's perspective and placement: Link to image

The Shadows That Run Alongside Our Car took a similar approach: Link to image

Lovely Little Thieves did a panoramic CG that reveals each of the characters as the scene progresses: Link 1 & Link 2

Thanks! Those mainly look like CGs, but they've given me some ideas.

Scribbles wrote:I think I figured out a way to do a layered BG with the sprites... it's just affording the BG art I gotta deal with now lol >< if the "dash" in the front layer, two sprites sitting up front, seats, third sprite sitting in the middle, then backseats/car rear - could work well. Might not be *perfect* but I think I could pull it off... maybe....

You could call it an 'imperfect' idea ^.^

Well, if you have the cash, a CG would be good to fill in the scene. My usual preferred angles are:
1. From the angle of the car hood looking in (Say the camera man is lying flat on the car hood or slightly further away, looking straight inwards from the middle of the hood)
2. From the interior looking directly in front from the middle of the windscreen (Straight angle looking downwards, kinda like looking down an aisle).
3. From the upper right/left side of the windscreen looking in would be okay too I guess (Its a diagonal angle that cuts through from the ceiling of the front passenger seat to the most left back passenger seat).

But if you're a bit short on dough, you can still make do with the regular sprites and the background of the interior of a car too I guess. Umineko and Rose Guns Days do this. For some reason, it doesn't really feel out of place, albeit it would be better in CG.

But if it's a really long scene and the two methods above don't suffice, then maybe you can add in transitions of backgrounds (To show the effect traveling time), 'greyed out scenes' (To represent past events, etc.) or relevant pictures/diagrams/representations that explains what the characters are talking about.

Usually a combination of 'CG and transitions' or 'sprites and transition' would give you the best effect I guess. But it's up to you on how you want to slice the cake and how the script is panned out. Good luck man and hope you can solve it!

Imperf3kt wrote:

Scribbles wrote:I think I figured out a way to do a layered BG with the sprites... it's just affording the BG art I gotta deal with now lol >< if the "dash" in the front layer, two sprites sitting up front, seats, third sprite sitting in the middle, then backseats/car rear - could work well. Might not be *perfect* but I think I could pull it off... maybe....

You could call it an 'imperfect' idea ^.^

LOL I laughed way too hard at that, I really need some coffee > <

@hoihoisoi thanks, I hope it comes out well, I've got time so I think I can make it work